Striving for rebirth

Gaofeng was taken aback from the seemingly deceitful action of the elder, but soon shifted his focus to the mixture of heat and cold that hit his entire body even before he touched the surface of the liquid inside the volcano. The instant Gaofeng's body touched the surface, he felt a soul-rending pain shoot through his entire body, with his pain receptors being overloaded to the point of near unconsciousness. The only thing that kept Gaofeng conscious was his own determination and clarity he had as a consequence of his high heart realm. His body was literally unraveling at the atomic level, thus one would not even be able to imagine experiencing such pain while not dying and even actually maintaining consciousness. All of the elements which formed the physical and spiritual being of Gaofeng was pulled apart, but there was nothing truly lost. Every single part of Gaofeng remained in a small area which rapidly turned into a vortex which the surrounding liquid was drawn to. When the opposing and mixing cold and heat, yin and yang, became absorbed by Gaofeng's atoms, the true change happened. Every atom was improved and perfected, and every defect was washed away. This process continued while Gaofeng was experiencing the continuous torture of having his essence ripped to pieces and put back together again in new shapes and forms. Naturally, Gaofeng didn't forget the true reason he was being reborn, and was continuously recalling and inducing the one hundred symbols which had merged with his body.

When he considered each individual symbol, it lit up in the midst of everything that made up Gaofeng's being, and eventually every single symbol was shining brightly. This light, when fully realized, formed a spherical barrier between Gaofeng's essence and the rest of the pool, while letting in controlled amounts of the different liquids rushing in from all sides. Even Gaofeng's soul had been torn apart, with only the golden chain of symbols remaining as his last piece of consciousness. When his soul now was slowly being reforged, these symbols absorbed the essence of his soul, which eventually would turn this chain into Gaofeng's true soul. His body's change was different, however, as every single of the one hundred symbols would imprint themselves on each and every single one of Gaofeng's atoms. During this process, the five divine abilities he had gained also manifested and imprinted themselves in each atom. This imprinting would lead to a far larger ease of mastery, as well as what could be considered to be a kind of foundational improvement of his physique. This process was far slower than that of his soul, as he had already begun the change of his soul to a large extent. Although the symbols imprinted themselves unimaginably quickly on his atoms, they could still only imprint themselves on the atoms one by one, and when one atom was fully imprinted with all one hundred symbols then the next one would begin being baptized in the same fashion. Gaofeng had no way of considering these matters in detail, however, as his entire mind was fully occupied by the immense pain. He was putting his entire effort into channeling the power of these one hundred symbols, as they were the only thing maintaining his life, while his now reborn soul maintained his consciousness due to the symbols it consisted of. This consciousness was required to maintain the one hundred symbols, and thus if he let himself slip into a slumber he would instantly be killed by the immense power which had scattered all of his atoms.

He soon noticed that he was also gaining additional atoms along the way as the liquid from the pool merged into his essence and multiplied, forming trillions upon trillions of atoms. Gaofeng felt that about 30% of his atoms had already been reborn, but he was struggling harder than ever to maintain his consciousness due to the increasing intensity of pain. Gritting his metaphorical teeth, he roared inwards "THIS LITTLE PAIN CAN NOT MAKE ME SUCCUMB. I CAN TAKE TEN THOUSAND TIMES THIS AMOUNT, A HUNDRED THOUSAND… BRING IT ON!" These sentences acted as a sort of mantra he repeated to himself as he endured the pain while simultaneously comprehending the symbols imprinting themselves onto his atoms. The process of imprinting made Gaofeng gain sudden enlightenment, as he felt his control over these symbols increased by a miniscule amount for each transformation they caused to an atom. If one paid attention to the structure of the atoms which made up Gaofeng's body before and after this transformation they were undergoing, one could notice that the mass of each atom was increased manyfold. A normal human atom wouldn't be very dense, as it would be filled with a variety of particles and fields, however, they were still taking up much more space than necessary. The previous Gaofeng, with his Holy Yin Yang physique, could be considered an exception to this, as his atoms were much denser, and contained way more potential, as well as power, compared to regular human atoms. However, this transformation turned these already incredibly dense atoms into a density which could be considered unrivaled. This would not only strengthen the speed at which Gaofeng could use abilities and cultivate, but also increase his physical weight and pure power by such a great amount that his true power could only be discovered through a lot of testing.

As Gaofeng achieved a breakthrough in his understanding of the one hundred symbols, the barrier became easier to maintain, and the pain became more bearable as he didn't have to divert the same amount of attention to maintaining it. Soon 50% of his atoms had been thoroughly transformed, and then 70%. The speed at which the transformation happened also increased in relation to Gaofeng's enlightenment. When he finally achieved completion, all of the symbols synchronized the way in which they lit up the cocoon Gaofeng found himself within. This synchronized light changed and almost seem to dance, until they shook lightly, and the sound of heavenly thunder rang out as these symbols themselves turned into atoms, joining the now way larger mass of atoms within the cocoon. At this moment, the energy of the surrounding pool was flooding into the cocoon, for so to once again completely cleanse and purify every remaining atom. When this process was finished, this liquid started joining in the creation of the reborn Gaofeng. It's energy permeated every atom as it first constructed a skeleton, far taller and wider than the previous frame of the twelve-year-old youth. Following this, his meridians were formed anew, even more powerful and perfect compared to their previous state, followed by his brain, heart, and other organs. After his eyes had been formed, the rest of his muscles and veins followed. When all of Gaofeng had been formed except for his skin, the cocoon started shrinking until it fit Gaofeng's frame perfectly and was subsequently absorbed by the symbols within Gaofeng's every atom, for this energy, elasticity, and power of this membrane being utilized in the process of Gaofeng's own cells and atoms forming his new skin. Following this, his nails and hair started growing until they stopped at a point of saturation. This point, however, was when Gaofeng's fingers and toes had practically been turned into claws with sharp and powerful nails on each one. Subsequently his hair started growing out, and not only on his head.

Gaofeng suddenly opened his eyes, which now seemed to contain entire universes due to their immense knowledge of the Myriad Changes of the world. His eyes did not simply give off the feeling of containing a universe, but they actually had the appearance of nebulas. There was no more white in his eyes, but instead there was an intense black as that of the emptiness of space, and stars were scattered throughout this space, forming the eyes through the formation of the stars, with what looked like red stardust and gas forming the outline of the iris, multiple golden uneven circles of compact stardust and debris being scattered throughout the iris, and a deep indigo forming the pupil, with only a minute amount of stars at its center. When this came into the view of the elder who had been intently watching throughout this entire ordeal, while trying his best not to show his worry, he let out a deep sigh of relief as he knew Gaofeng had truly succeeded in this highly dangerous trial which all previous contestants had failed. The elder's face lit up with a bright smile at the thought of finally having a true successor before his smile quickly faded away as he thought of the last part of the test.